Jaleesa and Col Taylor
by carrokid
Summary: Ever what happened to Jaleesa after the end of season five. In Jaleesa and and Colonel Taylor, I tell the story of their marriage from 1996 on.


Spring and Summer, 1996

Colonel Taylor sighed and rubbed his eyes as he handed Jaleesa his jacket. "What's wrong honey, did everything go ok?" Jaleesa asked as she hung his jacket on a nearby coat rack.

"No, it's not. Jaleesa, they've denied my promotion to full professor—the board says that I haven't published enough since I first got tenure."

"Oh honey, but you have put in so much work at that college and you've inspired so many students to achieve success—Dwayne is example enough of that and all of those young men in ROTC. Will there be another chance for you to go up for promotion?" Jaleesa asked as she looked at Colonel Taylor, concern in her eyes.

Colonel Taylor walked over to the couch and sat on the back of it. "Jaleesa, there won't be another chance, it doesn't work like that, and it doesn't matter anyway." Jaleesa walked over to Colonel Taylor and caressed his cheek with her right hand.

"Now Bradford, what do you mean by that?"

"It means exactly what you think it means. I've gone to the head of the mathematics department and I've submitted my resignation—I've given my blood, sweat, and tears to this college and they refuse to give me my due? No, I won't have it."

"Bradford, I think that you're being a little too hasty in doing this—you should back and tell them that you need a little bit more time to think it over." Colonel Taylor swiped Jaleesa's hand from his cheek and walked over to the liquor cabinet.

"I don't need more time Jaleesa; I've already thought about it and that is the way that it is going to be."

"Bradford, I am your wife! We have a daughter! You should have told me before making that kind of decision," Jaleesa said angrily as she sat down on the couch and glared at Colonel Taylor as he poured himself a glass of whiskey.

"Dammit Jaleesa, I am the man of this house and I will make decisions without being questioned like this." Jaleesa stood up angrily, walked over to the coat rack and grabbed her jacket.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that, I'm just as much of a decision-maker in this household as you are. I'm going to go pick up Imani from preschool and then I am taking her with me to the office—I have some work that needs to be finished up."

"Jaleesa, don't you walk out on me," Colonel Taylor roared as Jaleesa glared at him before grabbing her purse and walking out of the front door, slamming it shut behind her.

The rest of that Spring and early Summer were a tense time for Jaleesa and Colonel Taylor. Jaleesa put in as many hours as she could at her employment agency so that she could avoid spending time with Colonel Taylor who spent all his time on the living room couch nursing a bottle of whiskey or playing poker with Mr. Gaines. He barely seemed to register Jaleesa or Imani's presence when they were around and throughout the rest of that semester left his teaching to one of the graduate students.

"Bradford, you'll still need references from the department if you want to teach at another college. You can't destroy your reputation here at Hillman," she'd told him after nearly a month of him not teaching classes, but Colonel Taylor just pretended not to hear her and poured himself another glass of whiskey.

The only person that Jaleesa could confide to about her rocky marriage was her sister or occasionally Maggie, who'd joined the Peace Corp after leaving Hillman and was now working as a journalist in New York City. She'd talked to Whitley once over the phone, but Whitley was so busy over in Japan with Dwayne and was on the verge another baby. Jaleesa just internalized her misery and poured herself into her work at her employment agency and to taking care of Imani. Their mutual misery persisted well into the summer before Jaleesa gathered the courage to call Colonel Taylor's daughter, Suzanne.

"Oh Jaleesa, I'm so glad you called."

"I'm so glad that you came over from Germany so quickly. Suzanne, I just don't even know what to do. Ever since your father didn't go receive a promotion to full professor, he has been drinking and he won't leave the house except to play poker with Mr. Gaines and his other friends. I'm worried for him and for Imani, I don't want her seeing her father like this."

"Jaleesa, I can tell that you really love my father. I'm going to do everything I can to help you out. I'll even take over the cooking," Suzanne said with a chuckle. "Terrence told me all about that Thanksgiving dinner you made a few years back." Jaleesa smiled and hugged Suzanne tightly around the shoulders.

"I know that Bradford is having a hard time, he's a black man in America, but he is also strong willed and I know he can get through this—I just want him to see that Suzanne. That is all I want."

"Ich werde versuchen, zu helfen. That's German for I will try to help, I promise Jaleesa." Suzanne was like a breath of fresh air in the house and presence did seem to help; Colonel Taylor begin drinking far less and left the house far more, even escorting Imani to her dance classes and cleaning up around the house. Suzanne's presence reinvigorated Colonel Taylor and he even picked up a job teaching a couple of calculus classes at the local community college for that fall. They were both devastated when Suzanne when back to Germany two weeks later.

"Baby, I promise that I am going to get it together for you and our child," Colonel Taylor said as he pulled Imani onto his lap and rubbed Jaleesa's right thigh. "It has been a tough time for us, but all families go through tough times, and god-willing, we are going to pull through this."

"Oh honey, that is all that I've wanted to hear," Jaleesa said as she placed her head on Colonel Taylor's shoulder.

'I'm not trying to lose you baby, I don't want you to become like one those women in _Waiting to Exhale_ ," Colonel Taylor said with a laugh. Jaleesa lifted her head and glared at him.

"You just better not leave me for some white girl. You better believe that I'll burn all of this down," Jaleesa responded, referencing the frenetic scene in the movie when Bernadine burned all of her husband's clothing and car in the front yard when after he'd told her that he was leaving her for his white secretary.

Colonel Taylor laughed loudly. "This spring and the last few months were just a fluke baby. I'm going to teach at the community college this semester and while I'm doing that, I'm going to find a full professorship at one of the universities around her. Just you wait baby, things are only going to get better from here."


End file.
